All the votes have been counted and we are looking at a very rough road ahead.

With the election of Donald Trump we will see a revived national effort to cut taxes for business, cut regulations on environmental protections, and repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Here in New Hampshire we about to enter a new era of Republican control. The NH Senate stayed the same with 14 Republicans and 10 Democrats. In the House, Democrats picked up a few seats but are still in the minority (235-165). With Governor-elect Chris Sununu’s win, we can expect a fast and furious legislative attack on many of the programs working people fought for.

WHAT DOES IT all mean for New Hampshire? Watch for some Republican policy initiatives to be pitched with gusto. In Concord, that includes a return of right-to-work legislation, the “constitutional carry” firearms bill, and proposed business tax reform.

State Rep. Fred Doucette, R-Salem, said veterans issues and tackling the state’s opioid and heroin epidemic are two of his priorities in the coming legislative session.

The combination of a Republican President and Republican controlled Congress could mean the end of the ACA which could mean the end of the New Hampshire Health Partnership Program that protects more than 50,000 Granite Staters. Even without the repeal of the ACA, Sununu and many of his cohorts in the Legislature have already suggested ending the program in New Hampshire.

The question now is; What other attacks will working people face in the coming year?

Besides Right to Work will Republicans try to repeal our collective bargaining rights like they did in the O’Brien era of 2011-12? Will they attempt to reduce benefits for retiree’s and force workers to contribute more to the pension system? Will they force through their so-called “school choice” legislation that takes public funds and gives it to private and religious institutions? Will they continue to attack a woman’s right to choose and to attack women’s healthcare providers like Planned Parenthood?

It is time to start organizing so we will be ready when Sununu and his fellow Republicans begin their assault on workers.

Remember what was going on in Wisconsin, back then? Remember there was a recall election after most of the state’s public employees had their bargaining rights stripped away?

The Wisconsin Club for Growth was one of the “dark money” organizations that supported Walker during that recall attempt. But because it calls itself a “non-profit” – rather than a political organization – it doesn’t disclose its donors or adhere to contribution limits.

Because of the leaked documents, we now know that Donald Trump was one of the donors who helped Scott Walker stay in office.

Remember what happened next? In February 2015, Scott Walker pushed “Right to Work” through the Wisconsin Legislature in just days – and then said his experience taking on unions made him qualified to take on ISIS. (Yep, he said that.)

Remember the old adage, if you want to know where a man’s heart is, just look how he spends his money? This “dark money” contribution came from Donald Trump personally — not from the Trump Foundation, or the Trump Organization.

Yes, that’s right. According to the check image that was leaked to the Guardian, Donald Trump actually spent his own money

Do Union members really support Donald Trump as much as Trump says they do?

Donald Trump said and continues to reiterate, “I have tremendous support within unions…every poll shows it.”

Everyone knows that Trump likes to stretch the truth a little and nobody loves Trump more than Trump, but the truth is that union members really don’t like the idea of a Trump presidency.

Today, the AFL-CIO released new internal polling data that shows “Trump is at 36 percent among union membersin the five battleground states of FL, NV, OH, PA and WI.”

Just as many other Americans are turning away from Trump’s extreme rhetoric and xenophobic statements, among union members Trump has lost over five points in these key states over the last two and a half months.

“We are educating our members and demonstrating the dangers Trump’s reality show poses to our reality. It’s making a difference. And we’re not letting up,” wrote the AFL-CIO. “’Every poll shows it.’ He can keep saying it, but like most things with Trump, the claim is just hollow words – and it won’t come true on Election Day.”

Trump is really not as pro-union as he claims.

Union members across the country are watching the ongoing labor dispute between Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel and the Culinary Workers local 226 (Unite Here) as real guide to how Trump works, or doesn’t work, with unions.

In April, after Trump Hotel Las Vegas disputed the union election, the Regional Director for the office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) covering Las Vegas overruled the Trump Hotel Las Vegas and certified the Culinary and Bartenders Union as the legal collective bargaining representatives to the more than 500 workers at the hotel.

Since then Trump Hotel Las Vegas has tried to “negate their employees’ right to unionize and instead of recognizing the results of the federal government union election, hotel management has undertaken a hostile anti-union campaign” wrote the Culinary Workers Union in recent press release. “Employees of the Trump Hotel Las Vegas are calling on their boss, the Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, and co-owner Phillip Ruffin to negotiate a fair union contract.”

In July, the Culinary Workers Union and AFSCME teamed up to hold a rally highlighting Trump’s union busting tactics. Maria Mendoza was one of the thousands who showed up to protest the Trump’s failure to negotiate.

“I work hard everyday, but with the low wages I’m paid, I really struggle to provide for my daughters,” said Maria Mendoza, a guest room attendant at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas. “Mr. Trump says that he wants to ‘Make America Great Again,’ but I work for him and want him to negotiate a union contract so my coworkers and I can have fair wages, job security, and good health benefits.

The ongoing battle between union members and Trump’s Las Vegas hotel is not the only thing that union member have taken offense to. Earlier in the campaign Trump professed his love for “Right to Work.” Trump told the crowd that Right to Work is “better for the people” and “gives great flexibility to the companies.”

“The average worker in states with Right to Work laws makes $5,971 (12.2 percent) less annually than workers in states without right to when all other factors are removed than workers in other states,” stated the AFL-CIO.

Trump’s continued support of anti-worker policies like Right to Work and his company’s refusal to negotiate with workers will only drive down his support among union workers further.

Once again Labor Day is upon us.

Let me start by thanking all of the strong dedicated union members of the past who fought and died for our rights and many of the protections and benefits workers enjoy today. Without their strength and solidarity we would not have weekends, healthcare, OSHA, or vacation time, just to name a few (better list in image below).

Over the past thirty years corporate executives used union members as scapegoats to hide the fact that they are siphoning more of the profits for themselves. CEO’s blame workers as they ship our jobs overseas to boost their own salaries. CEO’s in the United States make on average 300 times that average worker in his or her own company. This is obscene and is more than double the next highest country on the list. Profits and productivity continue to go up, yet wages go down as the executives and their Wall Street buddies reel in the cash.

Politicians began to attack working people to avoid being forced to increase taxes on their corporate campaign donors. They rig the system so that working people are forced to pay more into a retirement system that pays them less in the end. They “borrow” from our retirement systems to balance their budgets and then refuse to pay back the loan. They pass laws making it harder for workers to organize and form union because they know that unorganized people are easier to steamroll.

Combined, the greed of Corporate America and their political puppets have created the greatest level of income inequality in U.S. history.

The thing that many people do not seem to understand it that stronger unions benefit all workers.

What appears to be an attack on unions is really thinly veiled attack on all working people.

These politicians and corporate overlords are no friends to working people. They only care about one thing, money. CEO’s say, “How much money will moving this factory to China boost my stock options?” Politicians say, “How many campaign donations will I get if I can pass this law to stop workers from organizing?”

As the 2016 elections bear down on us, we need to remember to only support those who put working people first. Those who will fight to protect our rights to collectively bargain, will work to make it easier for workers to organize, will advocate for Project Labor Agreements, fight to protect our retirement systems, and work to ensure that all working people have access to affordable healthcare.

We need to fill our State House and Senate will representatives who pledge to support working people not out of state special interests.

It is the “down ticket” candidates who have the biggest impact on our daily lives. That is why this year I am voting from the bottom up and I encourage you to do the same.

Over the next few weeks take the time to do a little research on the candidates running for State Rep and State Senate. See where they stand on issues like the Minimum Wage (1, 2, 3), Medicaid Expansion (1) and Prevailing Wage (1) legislation. If they oppose these and support so-called Right to Work legislation, they are no friend to working people and should not be elected.

He claims “the workers of this country are going to vote for me, [because] I’m going to create jobs.”

Jobs? Trump, the narcissistic, neo-Know Nothing GOP presidential nominee, has yet to reveal anything remotely resembling a comprehensive jobs plan. Meanwhile, he’s paying workers in China and other low-wage countries to make his line of duds and other products.

Unions? Trump says he prefers “right to work” states to non-RTW states like Kentucky, where I live and pack a union card. He chose a running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is gung-ho for RTW. (So are tea party Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton.)

Trump is cool with U.S. companies exiting one state for another. In other words, he’s down with bosses busting unions in non-RTW states and moving to RTW states.

At the same time, Trump has battled to keep his Las Vegas hotel workers from organizing a union.

Meanwhile, Trump and Pence are running on a GOP national platform that promises, “We will restore the rule of law to labor law by blocking ‘card check,’ enacting the Secret Ballot Protection Act, enforcing the Hobbs Act against labor violence, and passing the Raise Act to allow all workers to receive well-earned raises without the approval of their union representative. We demand an end to the Project Labor Agreements; and we call for repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, which costs the taxpayers billions of dollars annually in artificially high wages on government projects. We support the right of States to enact Right-to-Work laws and encourage them to do so to promote greater economic liberty. Ultimately, we support the enactment of a National Right-to-Work law to promote worker freedom and to promote greater economic liberty. We will aggressively enforce the recent decision by the Supreme Court barring the use of union dues for political purposes without the consent of the worker.”

There’s more from the platform that Trump’s people helped nail together: “We salute the Republican Governors and State legislators who have saved their States from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public employee unions. We urge elected officials across the country to follow their lead in order to avoid State and local defaults on their obligations and the collapse of services to the public. To safeguard the free choice of public employees, no government at any level should act as the dues collector for unions. A Republican President will protect the rights of conscience of public employees by proposing legislation to bar mandatory dues for political purposes.”

“Many a truth has been spoken in jest,” is an old expression.

“A union member voting Republican would be like a rabbit voting for hunting season to open,” former Kentucky labor secretary and Machinists union official J.R. Gray joshed when he was chair of the House Labor and Industry Committee and one of labor’s best friends ever in the state legislature.

It’s still true with the union-despising Trump-Pence and Bevin-Hampton teams.

Elected officials and community leaders praise Dietsch’s experience, vision for building NH’s future

Peterborough, NH—The campaign of Jeanne Dietsch, Democratic candidate for the New Hampshire State Senate in District 9, released a partial list of campaign endorsers today. The list includes a range of state and local elected officials, residents serving on town boards and committees, candidates for public office, and other community leaders.

“Jeanne will be a strong voice for progressive values in Concord. Because she can speak as a successful global tech entrepreneur, she’ll be able to challenge the lobbyists who advance a regressive ‘trickle down’ economic agenda and she’ll make a powerful case for investing in New Hampshire’s future,” said NH State Rep. Dick Ames (D-Jaffrey).

“Jeanne understands the give and take aspects of politics, has the ability to find common ground, brings people to consensus and gets things done,” stated Barbara Miller, Chair of the Peterborough Select Board.

“As a retired teacher and member of the teachers’ association, I support Jeanne because I know she’ll fight for good schools and for keeping the state’s promises to our students and our teachers. She’ll work to restore teachers’ freedom to actually teach, give our youth a top-notch education, restore state aid to schools to help lower property taxes, and honor the commitments the state has made to retired educators. I’ve known Jeanne for over 20 years, and I know she’ll be there for us,” wrote Greg Scerbinski, economics teacher at Conval High School for 34 years and former Conval Education Association president, (Peterborough).

“Jeanne has led creation and implementation of our community’s economic vitality strategy with fantastic vision and energy. This includes a positive connection for Peterborough in the global economy,” said James Kelly, Peterborough Master Plan Steering Committee

Jeanne’s background as a successful small business owner and her work on local economic development issues are winning over voters and endorsers on both sides of the aisle, important in a district like District 9 where a candidate needs to earn Republican votes to win in November.

One of these endorsers is Ed Juengst, a current member of the Peterborough Select Board. Said Juengst:

“I have generally been a Republican my whole life but now see in Jeanne a Democrat that I can fully trust to do what she says and believe in without reservation. Jeanne is a true leader who I strongly believe we need in our legislature now.”

Democrats speak out against the Americans For Prosperty “pledge” to oppose Medicaid expansion and pass Right to Work

On Wednesday morning, District 9 State Senate candidate Jeanne Dietsch and State Rep. Ivy Vann burned the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) “pledge” in front of Peterborough’s historic Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Hall on Grove Street. Their action was simultaneous to the public signing of that same pledge by some Republican candidates for the State House and Senate at an event sponsored by AFP in Concord. AFP is a “dark money” political group co-founded and supported by the Koch brothers. Its pledge commits signers to “Oppose all forms of ObamaCare in New Hampshire, including Medicaid expansion.”

“When we on the Peterborough Economic Development Authority (EDA) asked Monadnock Community Hospital what we could do to help them,” said Dietsch, chair of the EDA strategic planning committee, “the only thing they asked was help in passing Medicaid expansion because it brings hundreds of millions of dollars from Washington to New Hampshire’s hospitals. It also provides needed health coverage for 48,000 people in New Hampshire. Yet the elected officials who sign this pledge promise to vote against that. Why are we letting two men from Kansas tell us how to vote and how is this possibly in the best interests of New Hampshire?”

Said Rep. Vann, “Serving in the legislature, I’ve seen the damage this pledge has inflicted on our ability to get things done in Concord. On Medicaid expansion, on marshalling the resources we need to deal with the opioid crisis, on funding for our children’s education – on all these issues, this pledge has forced too many of my Republican colleagues into lock step with the extreme anti-government agenda of the Koch brothers. It’s time to send this pledge where it belongs – up in smoke.”

Dietsch and Vann chose the GAR Hall as backdrop for their action as a symbol of the principles that founded our nation, that government should be “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Mark Connolly, Democratic candidate for Governor, also spoke out against the AFP pledge calling it “shortsighted” and “backward looking.”

“The pledge demands that elected officials cut back on critical government services, including healthcare, and support so-called Right to Work legislation, an outdated policy that New Hampshire voters, workers, and lawmakers—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike—have rejected for more than a decade.”

“This secretive, Koch-funded organization has spent years pushing its relentlessly regressive platform on Granite Staters, and I call on my Republican opponents to stand up and admit they’re the ones pretending these ideas have merit. This is a true test of priorities,” added Connolly.

Concord, N.H.—State Senator and candidate for governor Jeanie Forrester made her fealty to the ultra-conservative Koch brothers official Monday, signing the 2016 Americans for Prosperity Pledge.

By signing, candidates pledge to “work tirelessly to… Pass a Right to Work Law in New Hampshire.” The Pledge also includes commitments to pursue right-wing economics and oppose all forms of the Affordable Care Act in New Hampshire, including Medicaid expansion, a program that has extended health benefits to nearly 50,000 Granite Staters.

In signing the pledge, Forrester joins state Representative Frank Edelblut as the first two candidates for governor to have signed the 2016 Pledge. Chris Sununu has signed the Pledge in the past, while Ted Gatsas has stayed silent on whether he’ll pledge allegiance to the Koch brothers.

“Jeanie Forrester’s pledge to support the Koch brothers extreme far-right agenda should put to rest any questions about whose interests she’d serve as governor,” said NHDP Press Secretary Evan Lukaske. “She now has officially declared that her priority will be to do the bidding of out-of-state billionaires and to strip health care from nearly 50,000 Granite Staters. Any notion that she’d fight for middle-class families just went out the window.”

Headquartered in Virginia and funded by the ultra-conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, Americans For Prosperity is an out-of-state special interest group that supports right-wing candidates and far-right ideology. AFP is known for spreading misinformation about climate science and promoting failed and debunked trickle-down economic policies. Former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski previously served as their executive director.

‘We have to send a loud, clear message: “right to work” is wrong for workers and wrong for America’

In remarks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton reiterated her commitment to fighting for working families as president and defending labor unions from Republican attacks.

“I can’t imagine how we could run our country if we didn’t have people like you, and the members you represent, working on our behalf every day,” Clinton said. “That’s why it’s so outrageous when Republican governors steamroll public employees and stomp on workers’ rights. In Wisconsin, the cradle of the labor movement, Scott Walker has ripped the heart, he’s ripped the heart, out of public-sectors workers’ right to bargain collectively for better wages and benefits. In Illinois, Bruce Rauner has been holding the budget hostage for months, endangering public colleges and universities, hurting families, and demanding outrageous concessions from public-sector unions.”

“And even though workers’ rights won the day in the Supreme Court in the Friedrichs case, make no mistake—we haven’t seen the last of efforts to use the courts to undermine your rights,” she said. “So I promise you this: I will be by your side in this fight every step of the way. When I am President, working people will always have a seat at the table and a champion in the White House. Because I believe that when unions are strong, America is strong.”

Clinton highlighted Trump’s plan to repeal Wall Street reform laws passed in the wake of the Great Recession. “I predict that Donald will try to con you with tough talk about Wall Street. Don’t believe him,” she said. “Donald Trump wants to tear up Dodd-Frank and let Wall Street run wild again.”

Clinton also highlighted Trump’s hiring of a union-busting firm, his consistent practice of shortchanging contractors – driving some out of business – and a consensus among economists that his policies would plunge us back into a recession.

“Unions helped build the strongest middle class in the history of the world. You pioneered the basic bargain that made our country great. You know what it is: if you work hard and do your part, you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead,” she said. “And you’ve been on the frontlines of the fight for affordable health care, safe working conditions, fair schedules and fair wages. And I know you’re not just fighting for your members, as important as that is – you’re fighting for all working families.”

“I’m proud to be in the trenches fighting alongside you to raise wages, protect pensions, and keep the ‘public’ in ‘public sector.’ That includes ending private prisons and detention centers that profit off our criminal justice and immigration system,” Clinton said. “And we have to send a loud, clear message: ‘right to work’ is wrong for workers and wrong for America.”

“We will pursue a bold, progressive agenda that lifts our country up. So that no one is left out or left behind,” she said. “AFSCME helped to make our 2016 Democratic platform a strong vision. It’s wonderful to be with people who want to build America up, not tear Americans down.”

A transcript of Clinton’s full remarks to the AFSCME Annual Conference is available here.

‘Looking for love in all the wrong places’

The Donald likely would be looking for love in all the wrong places if he campaigned in some deep western Kentucky union halls.

“When Donald Trump says that American workers are overpaid, obviously then he’s not in love with the union member,” said Jimmy Evans, business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 816 in Paducah. “Union members don’t love him.

“He’s pro-‘right to work.’ He’s one of the biggest outsourcers of manufacturing his own apparel. My union members are not going to say they love Donald Trump.”

Dusty Owens is one of Evans’ members and he’s not a Trump lover. “If he’s for the union man, why are all his factory overseas?” asked Evans, Local 816 Political Action Committee chair.

Jarrod Shadowen

Training director Jarrod Shadowen said if Trump dropped by Local 816’s hall, “We would probably tell him no, we don’t love him, and he can leave.”

The comments by Evans, Owens and Shadowen were echoed by several other union members at a recent meeting of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council. The umbrella organization represents AFL-CIO-affiliated union locals in the Bluegrass State’s 13 westernmost counties.

Western Kentucky is arguably the most conservative corner of the Red State Bluegrass State, whose GOP caucus he won. Trump vowed he’s “going to get millions of people from the Democrats,” presumably union members among them.

He had nobody at the Paducah union meeting.

“We’ve never lived like he has and he’s never lived like we have,” said Howard “Bubba” Dawes, directing business representative for International Association of Machinists District Lodge 154 in Calvert City. “There’s no way we’re going to support him.”

Jim Key, vice president of Paducah United Steelworkers Local 550, doesn’t “have the time of day for Donald Trump.” Added Key: “You take a man that’s filed for bankruptcy as many times as he has, and closed down every initiative that he has started up–he’s not for the working men and women of this nation.”

Jim Rodgers, a Local 550 trustee, mused that if Trump visited his hall, “I’d have to ask him to give me a name of one of those union members who he says loves him–just one.”

Lou Nell Busby, a member of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 277 who was visiting from Henderson, Tenn., issued a challenge to Trump. “If he can find any union women who would love him, I’d like to meet them.”

Brandon Duncan

Gary McManus, council financial secretary-treasurer and retiree from Calvert City USW Local 227, was incredulous over Trump’s claim that unions love him. “He’s crazy. There’ s no way that all union people love him. There’s no way.”

Brandon Duncan of Paducah, Local 227 president, said Trump “is about division and divisiveness. “We as Americans can either head down his path, which will take us back years and years, or we can stick together and be progressive and make this country better.”

Jarrod Shadowen

Council President Jeff Wiggins doesn’t mince words about his lack of love for The Donald. “He’s a union-busting, union-hating good-for-nothing,” said Wiggins, who is also president of USW Local 9447 in Calvert City.

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